What soapy thing have you done today?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Today I cut into yesterdays soap. I said it before and I'll say it again, love my multi bar cutter! Yesterday's soap was a comedy of errors that ended up having to be hot processed to salvaged. I did a little spoon swirl (inspired by last months challenge!) and I'm surprised with how good it looks. No, I'm not storing it on the metal cookie sheet, I just grabbed that to take the soap downstairs where it cures.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20230609_132055182.jpg
    IMG_20230609_132055182.jpg
    3.5 MB · Views: 0
Today I cut into yesterdays soap. I said it before and I'll say it again, love my multi bar cutter! Yesterday's soap was a comedy of errors that ended up having to be hot processed to salvaged. I did a little spoon swirl (inspired by last months challenge!) and I'm surprised with how good it looks. No, I'm not storing it on the metal cookie sheet, I just grabbed that to take the soap downstairs where it cures.
Oh so pretty! And clever to use a spoon swirl. I’ll have to remember this for my next accelerated soap!
 
Today I cut into yesterdays soap. I said it before and I'll say it again, love my multi bar cutter! Yesterday's soap was a comedy of errors that ended up having to be hot processed to salvaged. I did a little spoon swirl (inspired by last months challenge!) and I'm surprised with how good it looks. No, I'm not storing it on the metal cookie sheet, I just grabbed that to take the soap downstairs where it cures.
That is very pretty! TBH, I would be avoid even brief contact of fresh soap with an aluminum pan. 😳

My soapy thing today was wrapping and labeling a bunch of soaps for donation, and sending them off with my sweet hubby to the local Rescue Mission. They were delighted as always to get them. This time I also included some jars of whipped sugar soap scrubs. I have enough base to last a lifetime, plus lots of 4oz jars that a friend gave me from the pharmacy where she works (they were throwing them away). If they find that's a good product for their clientele, I'll make them a whole bunch more. I thought it might work well since it's in a container that's easier for an address-challenged person to store over time, compared to a wet soap. :)
 
First off, I love what everyone does here! I learn something just by perusing the forum, so thank you all for sharing. I've made my second batch of soap! First batch was a very simple coconut oil with almond oil. It turned out really quite well! It's a little drying/tightening, but all in all a really lovely bar. Second batch, I got my daughter involved. We've been DIY-ing projects together since always, starting with cooking/baking/canning, etc. I've been making body butter and scrubs for years. Soaping was the natural progression of my addiction...I mean...hobby. Right!
Second batch we had a little more fun! This recipe contains coconut oil, jojoba, almond, shea, argan, castor., and banana fragrance from Nature's Note Organics After making this, I realized from reading the posts here that I can reduce the cost of the batch (while retaining its lovely fatty oils value) by using up to 50% soybean. So that will be batch #3. Here are a couple photos of Batch #2. This was our first time pouring into a shaped mold (bow ties!). I read that we should grease well the mold so the soap doesn't stick. We used coconut oil. I think next time what I will do differently is 1) melt the coconut oil or use fractionated; 2) add the hydrogenated soybean. Meantime, hubby has psoriasis and the nice, rich, fatty Batch #2 should be quite nice on his skin. Appreciate input from anyone who has knowledge for skin conditions. Also please note, we haven't used any colorants yet. As I get more experienced, I will begin additives. Next batch we are talking about doing a transparent with pressed flowers, as that sparks my daughter's interest.
 

Attachments

  • SarahMomSoaping2023.jpg
    SarahMomSoaping2023.jpg
    450.4 KB · Views: 0
  • SarahMomSoaping2023a.jpg
    SarahMomSoaping2023a.jpg
    1.5 MB · Views: 0
  • SarahMomSoaping2023b.jpg
    SarahMomSoaping2023b.jpg
    1.8 MB · Views: 0
First off, I love what everyone does here! I learn something just by perusing the forum, so thank you all for sharing. I've made my second batch of soap! First batch was a very simple coconut oil with almond oil. It turned out really quite well! It's a little drying/tightening, but all in all a really lovely bar. Second batch, I got my daughter involved. We've been DIY-ing projects together since always, starting with cooking/baking/canning, etc. I've been making body butter and scrubs for years. Soaping was the natural progression of my addiction...I mean...hobby. Right!
Second batch we had a little more fun! This recipe contains coconut oil, jojoba, almond, shea, argan, castor., and banana fragrance from Nature's Note Organics After making this, I realized from reading the posts here that I can reduce the cost of the batch (while retaining its lovely fatty oils value) by using up to 50% soybean. So that will be batch #3. Here are a couple photos of Batch #2. This was our first time pouring into a shaped mold (bow ties!). I read that we should grease well the mold so the soap doesn't stick. We used coconut oil. I think next time what I will do differently is 1) melt the coconut oil or use fractionated; 2) add the hydrogenated soybean. Meantime, hubby has psoriasis and the nice, rich, fatty Batch #2 should be quite nice on his skin. Appreciate input from anyone who has knowledge for skin conditions. Also please note, we haven't used any colorants yet. As I get more experienced, I will begin additives. Next batch we are talking about doing a transparent with pressed flowers, as that sparks my daughter's interest.
Wow, nice work, and welcome to the addiction relaxing hobby. ;)

May I make a few suggestions? Save the expensive oils (fractionated CO, jojoba, argan) for leave-on products. Soap is not on the skin very long before it's washed down the drain.

FWIW, I have very sensitive skin, and my husband has psoriasis and eczema. What's best for both of us, as well as many others with sensitive skin, is to keep the cleansing oils quite low, usually less than 20%. That includes coconut oil, babassu oil, and palm kernel oil. While they may be nice in raw form, when they are saponified, they become very drying and potentially irritating, especially for psoriasis. When you do use coconut oil, definitely melt it first, unless you are using the heat transfer method. But don't use fractionated CO - it doesn't make nice soap, and needlessly increases the cost.

A lot of people don't realize that the "cleansing" number in the soap calcs really refers to "stripping all the oils off your skin." For sensitive skin, you want that cleansing number really low, even below the minimum suggested by the calc. Soap with a cleansing value of 0 will still get you clean. If you are open to using animal fats, lard and tallow make wonderful, gentle soap that is much easier on skin than coconut oil. Maybe try something like this:

45% lard, tallow, or blend of the two
20% soft oil of choice
20% CO, PKO, or blend
10% butter (cocoa, shea)
5% castor

With all those low-cleansing, high conditioning oils/fats/butters, you will have a very gentle soap with a creamy lather, even with a low superfat of 2-3%. If you want bigger bubbles, you can achieve that by dissolving some sugar in your water before you add the lye. It doesn't change the numbers in the soap calc, but it will definitely give you more bubbles.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing what you make next!

EDIT: you don't need to grease silicone molds, or molds lined with freezer paper. :)
 
Last edited:
Wow, nice work, and welcome to the addiction relaxing hobby. ;)

May I make a few suggestions? Save the expensive oils (fractionated CO, jojoba, argan) for leave-on products. Soap is not on the skin very long before it's washed down the drain.

FWIW, I have very sensitive skin, and my husband has psoriasis and eczema. What's best for both of us, as well as many others with sensitive skin, is to keep the cleansing oils quite low, usually less than 20%. That includes coconut oil, babassu oil, and palm kernel oil. When you do use coconut oil, definitely melt it first, unless you are using the heat transfer method. But don't use fractionated CO - it doesn't make nice soap, and needlessly increases the cost.

A lot of people don't realize that the "cleansing" number in the soap calcs really refers to "stripping all the oils off your skin." For sensitive skin, you want that cleansing number really low, even below the minimum suggested by the calc. Soap with a cleansing value of 0 will still get you clean. If you are open to using animal fats, lard and tallow make wonderful, gentle soap that is much easier on skin than coconut oil. Maybe try something like this:

45% lard, tallow, or blend of the two
20% soft oil of choice
20% CO, PKO, or blend
10% butter (cocoa, shea)
5% castor

With all those low-cleansing, high conditioning oils/fats/butters, you will have a very gentle soap with a creamy lather. If you want bigger bubbles, you can achieve that by dissolving some sugar in your water before you add the lye. It doesn't change the numbers in the soap calc, but it will definitely give you more bubbles.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing what you make next!
I can attest to this! Having been diagnosed with both psoriasis and eczema and being prone to bouts of allergic dermatitis, low cleasing value with high conditioning is much better on my skin. I was so confused when all the recipes were saying that coconut oil soaps are great and gentle for every homemade product from baby soaps to body scrubs and oil blends, because it literally strips your skin. For me, olive oil blends and/or shea butter recipes have been the best. One of my recent recipes used oatmilk and I can't wait to try that one because the batter was so smooth and rich and luxuriously creamy! The best part of making your own is being able to create the perfect bars for you and your family. And since everyone has different needs, you can still tweak recipes to suit different people 😄
 
Last edited:
Wow, nice work, and welcome to the addiction relaxing hobby. ;)

May I make a few suggestions? Save the expensive oils (fractionated CO, jojoba, argan) for leave-on products. Soap is not on the skin very long before it's washed down the drain.

FWIW, I have very sensitive skin, and my husband has psoriasis and eczema. What's best for both of us, as well as many others with sensitive skin, is to keep the cleansing oils quite low, usually less than 20%. That includes coconut oil, babassu oil, and palm kernel oil. While they may be nice in raw form, when they are saponified, they become very drying and potentially irritating, especially for psoriasis. When you do use coconut oil, definitely melt it first, unless you are using the heat transfer method. But don't use fractionated CO - it doesn't make nice soap, and needlessly increases the cost.

A lot of people don't realize that the "cleansing" number in the soap calcs really refers to "stripping all the oils off your skin." For sensitive skin, you want that cleansing number really low, even below the minimum suggested by the calc. Soap with a cleansing value of 0 will still get you clean. If you are open to using animal fats, lard and tallow make wonderful, gentle soap that is much easier on skin than coconut oil. Maybe try something like this:

45% lard, tallow, or blend of the two
20% soft oil of choice
20% CO, PKO, or blend
10% butter (cocoa, shea)
5% castor

With all those low-cleansing, high conditioning oils/fats/butters, you will have a very gentle soap with a creamy lather, even with a low superfat of 2-3%. If you want bigger bubbles, you can achieve that by dissolving some sugar in your water before you add the lye. It doesn't change the numbers in the soap calc, but it will definitely give you more bubbles.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing what you make next!

EDIT: you don't need to grease silicone molds, or molds lined with freezer paper. :)
Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to mention I used a bit of pink sea salt in Batch #1 and sugar in Batch #2. I always melt my solids. SoapMakingFriend calc is fabulous! I fudge around with the numbers until I like the graph balances. Won't use lard (daughter is vegan, so we will be only making vegan soaps...all good!). Really appreciate the input about the oils and that I don't have to grease silicone molds - thank you so much!

I can attest to this! Having been diagnosed with both psoriasis and eczema and being prone to bouts of allergic dermatitis, low cleasing value with high conditioning is much better on my skin. I was so confused when all the recipes were saying that coconut oil soaps are great and gentle for every homemade product from baby soaps to body scrubs and oil blends, because it literally straps your skin. For me, olive oil blends and/or shea butter recipes have been the best. One of my recent recipes used oatmilk and I can't wait to try that one because the batter was so smooth and rich and luxuriously creamy! The best part of making your own is being able to create the perfect bars for you and your family. And since everyone has different needs, you can still tweak recipes to suit different people 😄
Yes, oat milk is a great suggestion for us, thank you! I love coconut oil so I'm sad it strips skin of oils when saponified. Drat. I use Dr. Bronner's and it has such a lovely coconut fragrance. Wonderful in body butters and sugar scrubs! When I did Batch #2 with shea butter and banana fragrance all I smell is the shea. Used 3% fragrance oil to the batch. I wrote Nature's Note and they suggested upping to 6% next time. It does smell pretty - just more like shea than banana.

Thank you for the input! We are having a wonderful time and yes it's probably an addiction...lol....oh well. Worse things I could do, eh? 😆
 
I always melt my solids.
Sorry, I must have misunderstood what you said in your previous post, which was:

I think next time what I will do differently is 1) melt the coconut oil or use fractionated;

I read that to mean you hadn’t melted your CO, which had me scratching my head! But now I am curious as to what you did mean? 😊
 
Sorry, I must have misunderstood what you said in your previous post, which was:

I think next time what I will do differently is 1) melt the coconut oil or use fractionated;

I read that to mean you hadn’t melted your CO, which had me scratching my head! But now I am curious as to what you did mean? 😊
I’m so sorry for not being clear. I meant I didn’t melt the coconut oil when I used it to grease my molds. So if you look at my bow ties, they aren’t smooth. There were chunks or lumps of coconut oil in the molds and we just sort of pushed the soap batter in and hoped for the best. It’s all experimental and fun. So as long as the soap is usable I don’t mind if it’s not pretty yet. Next time!
 
Last edited:
Today we cut the soap we made yesterday. By “we,” I mean my SIL and niece who were visiting (along with my brother and nephew). They’ve been enthusiastic recipients of my soap in the past, so when we had a few hours to kill I thought maybe they’d want to try their hand at making it! My niece (she’s15) was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over my shimmery micas, so I decided we should make transparent soap. We each chose our own colors and fragrance, and used my new split cups to try to emulate a resin pour. They didn’t turn out perfectly, but they loved them so I was happy! I think my niece might have gotten a tiny bite from the soapmaking bug! ☺️
 
I’m so sorry for not being clear. I meant I didn’t melt the coconut oil when I used it to grease my molds. So if you look at my bow ties, they aren’t smooth. There were chunks or lumps of coconut oil in the molds and we just sort of pushed the soap batter in and hoped for the best. It’s all experimental and fun. So as long as the soap is usable I don’t mind if it’s not pretty yet. Next time!
Oh gotcha, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying, and I’m very glad to hear you weren’t trying to blend unmelted CO into your soap batter! 🤪
 
I love coconut oil so I'm sad it strips skin of oils when saponified. Drat.

I love coconut oil soaps too! We make a100% coconut one with 25% superfat. It doesn’t feel too drying. Don’t know if it’s just me.

@AliOop and @Shelley D I have a friend who has psoriasis… some of her meds are no longer working and she has completely revamped her diet. She is better now, thankfully, but she was wondering about the best kind of soaps she can use. Another friend has a son who has severe eczema – he barely gets sleep sometimes because of his condition. Would using Castile soaps help? Which soaps have helped you?
 
I love coconut oil soaps too! We make a100% coconut one with 25% superfat. It doesn’t feel too drying. Don’t know if it’s just me.

@AliOop and @Shelley D I have a friend who has psoriasis… some of her meds are no longer working and she has completely revamped her diet. She is better now, thankfully, but she was wondering about the best kind of soaps she can use. Another friend has a son who has severe eczema – he barely gets sleep sometimes because of his condition. Would using Castile soaps help? Which soaps have helped you?
Hi @Chaiat5 - I used 100% CO soaps for years, with 20% SF. I didn’t think they were drying until I tried other handcrafted soaps. I also didn’t realize how much soap scum buildup all that SF created on my sinks and pipes. 😩

We are fairly crunchy, so my husband is very careful with his diet and other natural treatments. Unfortunately, years of exposure to toxic chemicals have greatly damaged his immune system. So while a careful diet keeps his psoriasis to a minimum, it isn’t cured by any means.

Everyone is different in how they respond to soaps. My dear friend’s favorite for her sensitive skin is 80% OO, 20% CO. My husband’s go-to is high lard, low CO with neem oil and colloidal oats. Others with severe skin issues have to stick with 100% lard - they can’t do any CO or any OO.

It usually takes some experimentation to find the right one. I’d start with 100% lard if she is open to animal products. If not, 100% OO is probably the next best choice.
 
Hi @Chaiat5 - I used 100% CO soaps for years, with 20% SF. I didn’t think they were drying until I tried other handcrafted soaps. I also didn’t realize how much soap scum buildup all that SF created on my sinks and pipes. 😩

We are fairly crunchy, so my husband is very careful with his diet and other natural treatments. Unfortunately, years of exposure to toxic chemicals have greatly damaged his immune system. So while a careful diet keeps his psoriasis to a minimum, it isn’t cured by any means.

Everyone is different in how they respond to soaps. My dear friend’s favorite for her sensitive skin is 80% OO, 20% CO. My husband’s go-to is high lard, low CO with neem oil and colloidal oats. Others with severe skin issues have to stick with 100% lard - they can’t do any CO or any OO.

It usually takes some experimentation to find the right one. I’d start with 100% lard if she is open to animal products. If not, 100% OO is probably the next best choice.

Thank you so much for this. I hadn’t thought of the soap scum! Yikes!

I’m so sorry about your husband’s health. It is very hard indeed – my friend was told that the next level of meds for her were as strong as chemo meds. This was what made her relook her diet. I hope that things get much better for your husband.

We don’t use lard, but beef tallow and olive oil are available! Really appreciate your advice – I’ll let her know! ❤️
 
I love coconut oil soaps too! We make a100% coconut one with 25% superfat. It doesn’t feel too drying. Don’t know if it’s just me.

@AliOop and @Shelley D I have a friend who has psoriasis… some of her meds are no longer working and she has completely revamped her diet. She is better now, thankfully, but she was wondering about the best kind of soaps she can use. Another friend has a son who has severe eczema – he barely gets sleep sometimes because of his condition. Would using Castile soaps help? Which soaps have helped you?
I find the olive oil recipes to be good, but they do require a longer mold time before you can turn them out (a few days to a week) and a longer cure time (minimum of 6 months is good, up to a year is best). So maybe buy a bar first to see if you like it before investing time & ingredients. I really like Aleppo soap, which is olive and laurel berry oil and I use goat's milk in place of the water 🥰 But the long wait for curing had me experimenting with other recipes to use in the meantime so for those recipes I try to keep my olive oil at about 40-50% of a recipe and use different combinations of shea butter, cocoa butter, kokum butter, sweet almond oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, Castor Oil. These different oils I usually have on hand to make oil blends for topical use, to which I add ostrich oil. Ostrich oil has been great at relieving the dryness and itchiness but it's too expensive to be adding to soap. I would also like to add that I work recipes in percentages so my typical recipe might be:
80% olive oil/20% something else (laurel berry for my Aleppo variety), or for my other recipes: 40%-50% olive oil then my remaining percentages depend on which oils I use. I just use soapcalc to play with my percentages and it shows what your lye solution should be for your batch size. Honestly, I'm still trying to find my perfect bar plus I have come to understand that the extremely hard water where I live aggravates my symptoms so it's a challenge for sure! I can't wait to try my oatmilk soap ~ that may be the lucky one! For the oatmilk soap recipe I actually went back to the holy grail basic soap recipe of olive/coconut/palm kernel/castor so if that works out well I'll post the recipe.
Also, I can use coconut in my soap recipes as long as I have plenty of conditioning ingredients also like shea butter or olive oil, I just have to keep it at a lower percentage. I haven't tried just olive oil and coconut oil yet though, but possibly an 80% Olive/20% Coconut recipe would be good which is what Marseille soap is, I think. It really is trial and error, which is why I like to work with percentages so I can scale a recipe up or down and I really like to work with 1 pound batches due to not having much space for drying and curing. I think I also want to try
50% Olive/25% shea/25%coconut 🤔
So many possibilities! Oh, and I should add that recipes that are high in olive oil won't lather much until after they fully cure, but that doesn't bother me because I'm not addicted to bubbles, I just need a gentle soap, and after saponification the end result is soap. If you need bubbles to feel like your soap is "working", you will need to use ingredients and additives that make bubbles, like castor oil or something. Which bring us back to how great it is to make your own soap!
I apologize for rambling but it is such an awesome and exhilarating experience and there's so much information to share! I wish you all the best as you work towards finding your perfect recipe!
 
Hi @Chaiat5 - I used 100% CO soaps for years, with 20% SF. I didn’t think they were drying until I tried other handcrafted soaps. I also didn’t realize how much soap scum buildup all that SF created on my sinks and pipes. 😩

We are fairly crunchy, so my husband is very careful with his diet and other natural treatments. Unfortunately, years of exposure to toxic chemicals have greatly damaged his immune system. So while a careful diet keeps his psoriasis to a minimum, it isn’t cured by any means.

Everyone is different in how they respond to soaps. My dear friend’s favorite for her sensitive skin is 80% OO, 20% CO. My husband’s go-to is high lard, low CO with neem oil and colloidal oats. Others with severe skin issues have to stick with 100% lard - they can’t do any CO or any OO.

It usually takes some experimentation to find the right one. I’d start with 100% lard if she is open to animal products. If not, 100% OO is probably the next best choice.
For us, similar. He was exposed to chemicals. His psoriasis is part-and-parcel due to Parkinson's. We work with a naturopath and have a strict diet. Psoriasis is systemic, so topicals can only help, but can't cure. Can be managed with careful diet, stress relief, exercise, sleep. Gets better in the summer, worse in the winter. My daughter and I have mild eczema, but it's much easier to manage than psoriasis. He can't even take the meds! They make him sick. So we do our best with what we have.
 
I find the olive oil recipes to be good, but they do require a longer mold time before you can turn them out (a few days to a week) and a longer cure time (minimum of 6 months is good, up to a year is best). So maybe buy a bar first to see if you like it before investing time & ingredients. I really like Aleppo soap, which is olive and laurel berry oil and I use goat's milk in place of the water 🥰 But the long wait for curing had me experimenting with other recipes to use in the meantime so for those recipes I try to keep my olive oil at about 40-50% of a recipe and use different combinations of shea butter, cocoa butter, kokum butter, sweet almond oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, Castor Oil. These different oils I usually have on hand to make oil blends for topical use, to which I add ostrich oil. Ostrich oil has been great at relieving the dryness and itchiness but it's too expensive to be adding to soap. I would also like to add that I work recipes in percentages so my typical recipe might be:
80% olive oil/20% something else (laurel berry for my Aleppo variety), or for my other recipes: 40%-50% olive oil then my remaining percentages depend on which oils I use. I just use soapcalc to play with my percentages and it shows what your lye solution should be for your batch size. Honestly, I'm still trying to find my perfect bar plus I have come to understand that the extremely hard water where I live aggravates my symptoms so it's a challenge for sure! I can't wait to try my oatmilk soap ~ that may be the lucky one! For the oatmilk soap recipe I actually went back to the holy grail basic soap recipe of olive/coconut/palm kernel/castor so if that works out well I'll post the recipe.
Also, I can use coconut in my soap recipes as long as I have plenty of conditioning ingredients also like shea butter or olive oil, I just have to keep it at a lower percentage. I haven't tried just olive oil and coconut oil yet though, but possibly an 80% Olive/20% Coconut recipe would be good which is what Marseille soap is, I think. It really is trial and error, which is why I like to work with percentages so I can scale a recipe up or down and I really like to work with 1 pound batches due to not having much space for drying and curing. I think I also want to try
50% Olive/25% shea/25%coconut 🤔
So many possibilities! Oh, and I should add that recipes that are high in olive oil won't lather much until after they fully cure, but that doesn't bother me because I'm not addicted to bubbles, I just need a gentle soap, and after saponification the end result is soap. If you need bubbles to feel like your soap is "working", you will need to use ingredients and additives that make bubbles, like castor oil or something. Which bring us back to how great it is to make your own soap!
I apologize for rambling but it is such an awesome and exhilarating experience and there's so much information to share! I wish you all the best as you work towards finding your perfect recipe!
Thank you, this is super helpful! :)
 
For us, similar. He was exposed to chemicals. His psoriasis is part-and-parcel due to Parkinson's. We work with a naturopath and have a strict diet. Psoriasis is systemic, so topicals can only help, but can't cure. Can be managed with careful diet, stress relief, exercise, sleep. Gets better in the summer, worse in the winter. My daughter and I have mild eczema, but it's much easier to manage than psoriasis. He can't even take the meds! They make him sick. So we do our best with what we have.
Wow, so much in common! DH also has PD, plus four autoimmune disorders (that we know of so far, lol). Diet, exercise, sleep, stress management - all of it helps. Recently he has had fantastic results from TruDose, a targeted PRP therapy. Regular PRP did nothing, but TruDose has been amazing.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top